Paula's - Therapy Thread

[paulag1955]

Weird night last night. First off, my AHI was 0.40, which is a new low, and I had zero CA events, which is a first. My 95% Flow Limits were .07 (average is .13) and my tidal volume was...huge. All this while waking several times during the night feeling like I was suffocating. You can see the tiny break there before 2:30. I actually turned my machine off and back on because I thought it must not be blowing any air.

So as I said, a weird night. Loved the AHI and flow limits, the rest not so much. Does anyone have thoughts on the tidal volume?

   

[BoxcarPete]

Check your vents. That sounds similar to what I've read on this board from members who have implemented EERS. Tidal volume and minute vent both up, no drop in respiration rate, with reduction or elimination of CA events as well. Being awoken with a suffocating feeling may also be related to excess CO2, so my guess is that something changed that makes you re-breathe more air than you did before.

[paulag1955]

Okay, yes, that makes sense. I blocked one of my exhaust ports with medical tape when I turned EPR on and didn't experience any problems, but after raising EPR to 3, I noticed that my CA events were creeping up. So OF COURSE I blocked the other vent. So to be clear, they aren't completely blocked because the tape is perforated. But I did that two nights ago and the first night was normal. I'll try unblocking half of the second port for tonight and see if that works out better.

Thanks for your response!

[BoxcarPete]

Glad I could help. I tried blocking about a third of my mask vent (it's a ResMed so it's got an extra one on top of the headgear) once on my FFM, I felt like I slept great but forgot the SD card so I have no data to back it up. I'm not keen to try it again though, because I woke up dizzy. Like, stumbling dizzy. Mostly faded within an hour or two, but didn't get completely better till after lunch.

[paulag1955]

I unblocked about a third of the second vent. I'll report back tomorrow on how it goes.

[paulag1955]

I felt especially well-rested when I woke up this morning, so I was eager to see what my night looked like. Imagine my surprise.

   

[BoxcarPete]

What did the previous night look like? One of the oddities of sleep is that sometimes we can feel the sleep quality of the night before more than the one we just woke up from.

[paulag1955]

AHI of 2.02, which is just exactly my average with my current settings. So nothing special there.

[paulag1955]

So I've looked at my data today and after all my futzing around with my settings, I've managed to reduce my 95% flow limits from .13 to .12. Hardly seems worth the effort. Can someone please explain to me, as though I were five years old, how a different machine would help me reduce that number?

[Gideon]

Until the positional aspect is well managed a different machine will be of little help.

A higher PS/EPR could, depending on what is left, be better managed with a bilevel such as the VAuto but I wouldn't make that move until the positional stuff is well managed.